Park cleanup brings gratitude

Mahalo nui! Thank you to the city Department of Parks and Recreation for cleaning up our beloved Mauna Lahilahi Beach Park.

Over the last year or so, the park had become infested with drug users and dealers who wanted to make the park their own, depriving the rest of the community of using this open space.

The park is now closed at night and being restored, and we want to express our gratitude to the city Parks and Recreation Department for its cleanup efforts. We, the Makaha Hawaiian Civic Club, have adopted this park and will work closely with the department to keep the park worthy of being part of the gateway to Makaha.

John DeSoto, Emily Auwae and Denise Saylors
Makaha Hawaiian Civic Club members

Potholes part of master plan?

I would like to congratulate the city administration for its plan to add another 40 miles of bike paths in and around Honolulu. It takes great foresight to understand what the transportation needs of a community will be in future years.

Now, with both rail and more bike pathways in the works, even the mayor's strongest critics should be able to appreciate the careful thinking that went into his decision to allow our system of roads to continue crumbling into rubble, knowing that within a few short years after they become completely unusable, his alternatives will be available to us. Until that shining day, let's stop all this complaining about having to dodge potholes, and the supposed damage they're doing to our vehicles, and let's instead all look forward, like our mayor, to a society freed from the shackles of such personally convenient, go-anywhere-you-want-to anachronisms such as automobiles.

Michael F. Ferguson
Honolulu

Ho'opili needed in West Oahu

Ho'opili needs to be reclassified to allow for urban development and uses. Ho'opili is part of a much larger community plan.

If it is not approved, will the rail transit station planned at Ho'opili sit alone in an agricultural field? Where will future students and employees of UH-West Oahu live? These people and their families will need housing, places to eat and relax, and they deserve the opportunity to belong to a community.

The current farming operations on the Ho'opili site generate a substantial amount of dust which is a real problem for residents who live in the Villages of Kapolei. The idea that Ho'opili will create more traffic is just not true. The bottom line is that rail—along with other road improvements in Kapolei and Ewa—will reduce traffic in the long run.

In the end we must ask ourselves a critical question: Where will our children live tomorrow if we don't carefully plan today?

Leonard Leong
Honolulu

Increase options for clean transit

There are lots of good suggestions for going green and reducing your carbon footprint, like opening windows rather than running the air conditioner and installing solar water heaters. But most of our energy consumption is through transportation.

One of the best ways to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gases is to walk, ride a bike or take public transit rather than using your automobile. We must find ways to reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels and find cleaner transportation options. This is another reason to support rail transit.

Jon Sakamoto
Honolulu